ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2)
| Ship flag = | Ship name = [[HMS Venerable (R63)|HMS Venerable (R63)]] | Ship ordered = 7 August 1942 | Ship builder = Cammell Laird | Ship yard number = 1126 | Ship laid down = 3 December 1942 | Ship launched = 30 December 1943 | Ship commissioned = 27 November 1944 | Ship decommissioned = April 1947 | Ship fate = Sold to the Netherlands 1 April 1948 }} |module2= | Ship name = [[HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81)|HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81)]] | Ship namesake = Karel Doorman | Ship acquired = 1 April 1948 | Ship commissioned = 28 May 1948 | Ship decommissioned = 29 April 1968 | Ship refit = 1955-1958 1965-1966 | Ship fate = Sold to Argentina 15 October 1968 }} |module3= | Ship name = ARA Veintcinco de Mayo (V-2) | Ship namesake = Date of the May Revolution | Ship acquired = 15 October 1968 | Ship refit = 1969 | Ship commissioned = 12 March 1969 | Ship out of service = Inoperable by 1990 | Ship decommissioned = 1997 | Ship homeport = Puerto Belgrano Naval Base | Ship fate = Provided spare parts for [[NAeL Minas Gerais|NAeL Minas Gerais]] and remainder was scrapped in 2000 }} |module4= |Ship speed= |Ship complement=1,300 |Ship armament=12 x 40 mm AA guns |Ship aircraft=21 }} }} The ARA ''Veinticinco de Mayo'' (V-2) was an aircraft carrier in the Argentine Navy from 1969 to 1997. The English translation of the name is the Twenty-fifth of May, which is the date of Argentina's May Revolution in 1810. The ship previously served in the Royal Navy as and the Royal Netherlands Navy as [[HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81)|HNLMS Karel Doorman]]. She was deployed south during the Beagle Crisis in 1978 and in the first weeks of the Falklands War, where her aircraft were deployed against the Royal Navy task force, but spent the bulk of the war in port. History The ship was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, England during the Second World War for the Royal Navy.Ireland, p. 147 As a ''Colossus''-class aircraft carrier, she was named and saw service in the British Pacific Fleet. However Venerable only served three years in the Royal Navy before being sold to the Dutch as [[HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81)|HNLMS Karel Doorman]]. After a boiler room fire, the carrier was rebuilt, and sold to Argentina. The Argentines already operated a carrier, the [[ARA Independencia (V-1)|ARA Independencia]], also a former Royal Navy Colossus-class. After Independencia was decommissioned in 1970, the Veinticinco de Mayo was the sole remaining carrier in the Argentine fleet. It could carry up to 24 aircraft. The air group started with F9F Panthers and F9F Cougars jets and later these were replaced with A-4Q Skyhawks supported by S-2 Tracker anti-submarine warfare aircraft and Sikorsky Sea King helicopters. On September 1969, during the voyage of the recently bought 25 de Mayo in the Netherlands, Hawker Siddeley demonstrated their Harrier GR.1 on board the carrier for a possible sale to the Argentine Navy. During the 1970s the ship was refitted and updated several times, though in each case the duration of each repair period was never more than 3–5 months, allowing her to be available to deploy. Her last pre-Falklands refit occurred during ths spring/summer of 1981, when she received an update to her radar, arresting gear, steam catapult and (most noticeably) the port side angled deck was finally filled out via an enlarged sponson. These improvements would theoretically enable her to operate the Super Etendard strike aircraft purchased from France, however it was discovered during testing that the catapult had difficulties launching the aircraft type. Therefore her strike airwing was limited to the A-4Q Skyhawks. Beagle Conflict See Operation Soberania During the Operation Soberania the Veinticinco de Mayo was planned to support the invasion of the Picton, Nueva and Lennox islands. Falklands War During the Falklands War ( ) the Veinticinco de Mayo was used in support of the initial Argentine landings on the Falklandshttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/argentina/25-de-mayo.htm and then in defence of the occupation she was deployed in a task force north of the Falkland Islands, with the [[ARA General Belgrano|ARA General Belgrano]] to the south. The British had assigned , a nuclear-powered submarine, to track down the Veinticinco de Mayo and sink her if necessary. Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, commanding the British Task Force from stated in his book "One Hundred Days", that had Spartan located the carrier, he would have "Recommended in the strongest possible terms to the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse that we take them both out this night".Admiral Sandy Woodward One Hundred Days, pages 207 and 208. ISBN 978-0-00-713467-0 After hostilities broke out on 1 May 1982, the Argentine carrier attempted to launch a wave of A-4Q Skyhawk jets against the Royal Navy Task Force after her S-2 Trackers detected the British fleet. However, what would have been the first battle between aircraft carriers since World War II did not take place, as poor winds prevented the heavily-loaded jets from being launched. After the British nuclear-powered submarine sank the General Belgrano, the Veinticinco de Mayo returned to port for safety. Spartan never tracked down the carrier. Her A-4Q Skyhawks flew the rest of the war from the naval airbase in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and had some success against the Royal Navy, sinking , although three Skyhawks were shot down by Sea Harriers. In 1983, the Veinticinco de Mayo was modified to carry the new Dassault Super Étendard jetsVideo but soon after problems in her engines largely confined her to port; she was deemed more or less unseaworthy. Disposal The Argentine Navy could not procure the funds for a modernization and new engines, leading to decommissioning by 1997. By this time she had already been stripped of various major pieces of equipment that were used as spares for the Brazilian carrier [[NAeL Minas Gerais|NAeL Minas Gerais]], another Colossus-class ship which had been heavily modified in the Netherlands.http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/vengeance/History_BN.html Finally in 2000, she was towed to Alang, India for scrapping. Although the Minas Gerais was offered to the Argentine Navy as a replacement in 2000 she was rejected due to her poor condition and high restoration and maintenance costs. Argentine cooperation with Brazil has meant that the naval air wing has continued to operate from the deck of carrier [[NAe São Paulo|NAe São Paulo]] during ARAEX exercises and/or touch-and-go landings on US Navy carriers when they are in transit within Argentine coastal waters during Gringo-Gaucho manoeuvres. See also * List of aircraft carriers * ''Veinticinco de Mayo'' cruiser * List of ship launches in 1943 * List of ship commissionings in 1969 * List of ship decommissionings in 1997 References * Further reading * * * (in Spanish) External links * Historical Pictorial * Google Video of Super Etendards practicing touch & go on ARA 25 de Mayo * Google Video of A-4 Skyhawks on ARA 25 de Mayo * Naval-History.net HMS Venerable Category:Colossus-class aircraft carriers of the Argentine Navy Category:Mersey-built ships Category:1943 ships Category:Cold War aircraft carriers of Argentina Category:Falklands War naval ships of Argentina